Artwork depicting Mahsa Amini that will be featured in new murals being unveiled in Israel. Photo: Hooman Khalili

Four new murals will be unveiled in Israel this week to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the death of Jina “Mahsa” Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish woman who was arrested and allegedly tortured by the Iranian regime’s morality police for improperly wearing her hijab, or head covering, sparking historic anti-government protests across Iran.

Iranian-American filmmaker Hooman Khalil helped produce, fund, and design the murals, which will debut in the Israeli cities of Jerusalem, Haifa, and Tel Aviv. The murals will pay tribute to Amini’s death on Sept. 16, 2022, but also include images of over 1,000 other Iranians who were killed or imprisoned by the Iranian regime since the start of the demonstrations.

More than 500 people were killed by security forces while over 22,000 were detained as part of Iran’s crackdown on demonstrators. “Women, Life, Freedom” has become the unofficial slogan of the ongoing female-led protests and will also be featured in the new murals.

“This moment, among countless others, reminds us of the pervasive injustice faced by the citizens of Iran every single day,” Khalili said in a statement. “I want these more than 1,000 Iranians and their families to know that we stand in solidarity with them and believe in a future where they will be free, without the threat of imprisonment.”

The first mural will be unveiled in Tel Aviv at 5 Shvil Hamifal St on Tuesday. Two murals will debut the next day in Haifa — at the Hecht Museum at Haifa University and at 10 Wadi Salib — and then the fourth mural will be unveiled on Thursday in Mevasseret Zion near Jerusalem at Harel Middle School. The unveiling ceremonies will be attended by local officials as well as Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem Fleur Hassan Nahum and journalist Emily Schrader, both of whom helped Khalili bring the murals to Israel.

The murals were designed by the Iranian filmmaker alongside designers Justin Mcginnis and Ryan Tseun, who created an artificial intelligence mosaic image of Amini. The artwork is a follow-up to five murals that Hooman unveiled this summer in Israel that featured aspects of both Israeli and Iranian culture, and also showed solidarity with the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement.

The anniversary of Amini’s death falls this year on the holiday of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.